I began my working life as a graphic designer and illustrator, and for several years ran my own design consultancy. In the 1990s, I sold the business to fulfil a long-held ambition to study English literature at university. I took to academic life like a duck to water and, ten years later, emerged with a first-class degree in English, an MA and a PhD. My doctoral research led to the publication of Mary Blachford Tighe: The Irish Psyche (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011; now out of print).

I've been working as a freelance editor and book designer since 2006, combining my love of literature with my background in graphic design. I'm based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and work with authors throughout the UK and beyond.

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Away from my desk, I enjoy rummaging through archives and libraries in search of long-forgotten women writers from the north of Ireland. In 2016, I established Herself Press with the aim of bringing some of their work back into print.